


The Axiom

by pauraque



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Episode: s03e22 The Most Toys, M/M, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22590217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pauraque/pseuds/pauraque
Summary: Data cannot feel. This is true because he has been programmed to believe that it is true. It is a first principle.
Relationships: Data/Kivas Fajo
Comments: 12
Kudos: 72
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	The Axiom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flowerdeluce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowerdeluce/gifts).



Data cannot feel. This is true because he has been programmed to believe that it is true. It is a first principle. Therefore, anything he has experienced cannot, by definition, be an emotion.

During his captivity, he came to associate the approach of his captor with heat. The reason for this is simple: Although he knew that he could not resist due to Fajo's force field, and that he could not escape due to the sealed door, nonetheless low-level subroutines responded to the nearness of a dangerous individual by causing nanomotors in his skin to begin subtly pre-loading in anticipation of the need to engage in self-defense or flight. The kinetic energy generated by these microscopic movements was then converted to heat energy in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics. This was the physical explanation for the incremental increase in temperature that Data sensed in the bioplast substance of his skin as Fajo drew close to him -- as close as his force field would allow.

This mechanical response was fundamentally different from the rising heat that Data perceived emanating from his captor's organic flesh, wherein the flow of blood caused an iron-pink flush to suffuse his cheeks. Fajo's pupils dilated whenever he examined Data's body, though the illumination of the room did not change. This may be associated with various emotions: Pleasure. Interest. Desire.

Given Fajo's previous comment that he would like to see Data naked, desire seemed probable in this case.

While alone in the room, unaware of when Fajo would return, Data found himself periodically accessing and re-accessing the already well-established information that his captor could not touch him without deactivating the protective force field, though of course he would find no new results. It was as though he was repeatedly executing a loop that could not end while present circumstances persisted, though he had not been programmed to do so.

This repetitious searching could not have been an expression of anxiety. That is not possible. It would be in violation of a fundamental axiom.

It also proved irrelevant to the situation in a way that Data had not foreseen. He had not considered that Fajo could simply order Varria to touch him.

"Don't worry, he won't hurt you," Fajo told her when she at first hesitated to follow his directions. "He can't." But Data doubted that was the source of the woman's reluctance.

Varria avoided meeting Data's eyes as she pulled down his clothing. The rising temperature of her skin may have indicated embarrassment -- though, again, the increased heat of his own bioplast did not.

Fajo darted from one side of her to the other, peering at Data from every angle. His pupils were fully dilated.

"Nipples! Why does he have nipples?" he exclaimed in wonder.

"Why do _you_?" Varria retorted at Fajo over her shoulder, the tautness of her muscles suggesting annoyance. For a moment she appeared frightened by her own daring, but Fajo laughed. He seemed in a good mood that day -- unaware, then, that it would be his last.

"Do they have sensation? Are they--?" Fajo made the beginning of a gesture of reaching. But, perhaps realizing that he would not be able to come close enough to touch, his fingers gradually closed into a fist, which he bit the knuckles of. He nodded to Varria and jerked his chin towards Data's chest. "Go on. Go on."

She exhaled. "Kivas, I don't..." But she did not complete her sentence. As she moved to touch Data, her hand was trembling, though she had shown no signs of neurological disease prior to that point. She touched his nipple softly with her fingertips, and her face contorted as if in pain.

Fajo hovered behind her, watching intently as her touch trailed around the areola that Dr. Soong had once crafted for him. "How does he feel?" Fajo whispered in her ear. His heart rate was so elevated that Data could detect its rhythmic distortions in his voice.

"Real," she replied, her voice also growing very soft. "He's so still... but he feels real."

"He's not, though," Fajo said shortly. "You could cut them off and he wouldn't even feel it."

Varria's eyes closed; she pressed her lips together. "Please, Kivas, don't make me..."

"Please do not be concerned for my well-being," Data told her. "Fajo is correct. The range of my sensory qualia does not permit the experience of pain."

Nonetheless, a tear fell from one of Varria's closed eyes. Data concluded that he had failed to alleviate her emotional suffering.

After that exchange, Fajo also ordered Varria to demonstrate the flexion of Data's arms and finger joints, as well as to open several of his panels.

When she asked why this last was necessary, Fajo asked her, "Don't you want to see what's inside him?"

Though his captors were likely already aware of all his components, Data found that this question provoked an unexplained increase in his nanomotors' pre-loading activity, to the extent that some, particularly those in his hands, exceeded recommended stress levels. He would also find later that he would have difficulty integrating the sentence into his long-term memory; for unknown reasons it remained at the forefront of his awareness long after it was no longer immediately relevant. The thought also occurred to him that mental perseveration on a threatening statement is sometimes associated with the emotion called dread, at least for beings who are capable of experiencing such.

Fajo did not order Varria to harm him. This was not unexpected; after all, it seemed unlikely that the collector would wish to mar his prize. However, through logical synthesis of events thus far, Data concluded that if his captivity continued, it was probable that Fajo would order Varria to commit further acts of violation against him that would cause no lasting physical damage.

As Fajo's behavior was known to be erratic, the nature of these violations would most likely be unpredictable.

Perhaps a similar line of reasoning is what led Varria to risk the escape attempt, later that same day. Sometimes living beings are willing to take substantial risks motivated by desperation. It may be that because she felt the desperation that he could not, Varria was motivated to risk her life to free them both. In retrospect, Data wonders if this could have been considered an instance of situational irony.

Because he cannot feel, it is not possible that Data's actions during the escape were influenced by his perception of the pitch, volume, or timbre of Varria's dying screams. The sharp buildup of electrical charge in his synthetic musculature at that moment was, of course, attributable to parasympathetic preparation to defend his own bodily integrity, though it created a tightening effect which could be interpreted by an outside observer as muscular tension due to fear or rage.

This tightness also affected Data's hands and fingers as he held the disruptor. It would have reduced the time necessary to activate the weapon by several microseconds. In an emergent situation, such a reduction may make the difference between survival and destruction.

It was not necessary to fire, nor ethical. Data could simply have held Fajo captive and sought assistance from the _Enterprise_ or another friendly vessel.

Data is programmed to follow Gricean conversational maxims of quantity and relevance. He is not capable of making a statement that, while strictly true, lacks relevance to a posed question or withholds crucial information. Therefore, it is not possible that he deceived Commander Riker by responding to his implied inquiry about the weapon with irrelevant speculation.

Nor is it possible that he is experiencing any lasting psychological impact due to the incident. Perhaps his statistically unlikely tendency to periodically access his memories of it even after his rescue can be explained by some subtle damage to his positronic matrix caused by exposure to the force field. He may ask Geordi to evaluate this possibility.

Yet he does not.

Having eliminated that which is impossible, Data can only arrive at a most improbable conclusion. It would seem that, without having consciously decided to do so, he has begun to mimic expressions of emotion out of sheer curiosity, just as during his captivity he attempted to imitate the stolen Mona Lisa's famously enigmatic smile.

To speculate otherwise would be a thought as subversive as questioning whether the number one is equal to itself, or proposing that parallel lines can meet.

Of course, as he finds himself repeatedly and inexplicably recalling over the coming days and weeks (even in entirely unrelated circumstances such as quietly waiting for an otherwise empty turbolift to reach its destination) the parallel postulate does not hold for non-Euclidean geometries. Thus, it could fairly be stated that a principle which at one time appears fundamental may, in the course of further research, turn out not to be so.


End file.
